Biden noted yesterday that retired Gen. Jack Keane, a former Army vice chief of staff, helped produce an American Enterprise Institute study that called for 20,000 additional U.S. troops in Baghdad to clear and hold neighborhoods for about 18 months.

Biden said he does not think that even that would work. He stressed that "if the president does make this surge, I hope he levels with the American people and makes it clear the minimum that they're going to be there for 18 months."

Biden said that his committee will begin hearings on Iraq on Jan. 9 and that if Bush has not released his plan by then, he might start with experts and "those proposing alternatives" to what the president may do.

He is planning three days of hearings each week for three weeks and will include past and present administration officials.

Biden is doing exactly what we suggested last week: setting the narrative about the escalation in advance of Bush’s SOTU. And when Saddam is executed just before Bush’s SOTU speech, and the Sunnis retaliate, Bush can then explain his plan for “victory” to a skeptical nation in prime time with the ISG report gathering dust in his study.

The White House's stage managers will be earning their pay next month.